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Carbon Credits are the New Canadian Gold Rush

Startups that sell carbon credits are the next big thing to hit Canada's stock markets, which have long attracted risky companies from volatile cannabis producers to dodgy mining companies.

Nearly a dozen startups are expected to list their shares on Canadian exchanges to finance carbon-credit purchases or invest in climate ventures that generate credits, according to banking and exchange officials.

These carbon credits are in high demand. They are supposed to reduce the amount of carbon in the atmosphere by funding things such as new technologies or forest preservation. Businesses and individuals buy them to effectively offset their own carbon emissions generated by things such as running factories or flying.

Startups are eager to meet that demand. 

“It is becoming the Wild West out there,” said Philip Hardwick, chief operating officer of Base Carbon, which seeks out high-quality credits.

“There is such a stampede for carbon-credit projects that the risks are getting greater that you will back the wrong one that doesn't help the environment.”

Some recently launched Canadian ventures are creating carbon credits by distributing cook stoves that reduce carbon emissions or by growing new forests, which store greenhouse gases.

Others are acquiring carbon credits earned by preventing threatened deforestation. One new business is joining with a company that injects captured carbon emissions into fresh concrete.

Peter Thiel's Founders Fund co-leads $20 million Series A for Ondo Finance

Ondo Finance, a crypto startup that provides structured products built on top of decentralized exchanges, has raised $20 million in Series A funding as it looks to build a decentralized investment bank.

Peter Thiel's iconic VC firm Founders Fund and Pantera Capital co-led the round. This is the first time Founders Fund has led an investment in a token-based project, Ondo's founder and CEO, Nathan Allman, told The Block. Founders Fund has previously participated in a token round for Parallel Finance.

An Ivy League endowment also joined Ondo's Series A, said Allman, while declining to name it. 

The fundraising was via an equity round but with token rights, according to Allman. Its native token ONDO and a decentralized autonomous organization (DAO) are expected to launch "in the next few weeks."

Other investors in Ondo's Series A funding included Coinbase Ventures, Tiger Global, GoldenTree Asset Management, Wintermute, Flow Traders and Steel Perlot, a deep tech management company led by former Google CEO Eric Schmidt.

Intel will be integrating 5G network related instructions directly onto a variant of Sapphire Rapids.

This would be a different piece of silicon from the Sapphire Rapids for datacenters. It is called Sapphire Rapids EE.

The more we make progress in building BCI, the more we need to think about how to do that open-source. The main concern by most "ordinary" people is the way, how big tech will have access to such sensitive personal data.

Snap is making a tiny $230 flying camera drone that will take off, film from above, then land back in your hand autonomously

It’s called Pixy, the small yellow puck takes off from your hand, follows you around, and captures video that can be sent back to Snapchat.

It’s Snap’s attempt at making a drone that’s friendlier and more approachable than other products on the market — and it may hint at the more advanced, AR-powered future Snap is building toward.

Pixy is available online for $230 in the US and France starting Thursday.

Unlike most existing drones, it’s small and light enough to fit in a pant pocket. There isn’t a controller; it takes off from and lands on an outstretched palm, and it uses six pre-programmed flight patterns that are accessible through a dial on the top of the device.

British bank Revolut is working on a "decentralized" wallet, Bitcoin  deposits, withdrawals, staking and lending.

German eCommerce start-ups attractive for investors

The development of the start-up scene in Germany during the Corona pandemic illustrates its strength and importance for the economy.

Software, medicine, and eCommerce remain the top 3 industries in Germany in Q4 2021 by the number of new foundations – together bringing about around 35% of all new start-ups registered with the German authorities in the last quarter of 2021.

The dynamic development in these sectors naturally also attract investors – the top 3 sectors by number of new foundations were also those with the highest number of businesses with financing rounds in Q4 2021. 

eCommerce is in rank 3 in Q4 2021 when it comes to the sectors with most new start-up foundations. In terms of financing rounds, eCommerce is second placed, with a total of 82 start-ups having received investor capital in Q4 2021.

Only the medical field beats eCommerce, but it registered only one more start-up with financing rounds in Q4 2021.

China plans reprieve for Tech Giants as Economy Slows

China is preparing to pause its regulatory campaign against the country's tech sector.

China’s top internet regulator is set to meet next week with the country’s embattled tech giants to discuss the regulatory campaign, according to the people, who described the meeting as a sign that officials acknowledge the toll the regulations have had on the private sector at a time when China’s economic outlook is increasingly clouded due to strict Covid measures.

Regulators are planning to hold off on new rules that limit the time that young people spend on mobile apps, according to one of the people, while another person said that Beijing is considering pushing some of its biggest tech companies to offer 1% equity stakes to the state and give the government a direct role in corporate decisions.

Next week’s scheduled meeting, between the Cyberspace Administration of China and tech giants including Tencent and Meituan, comes after a year in which regulatory uncertainty has triggered a wave of stock selloffs and job layoffs across the industry.

Boston’s new CIO to focus on unlocking city data

Boston’s next chief information officer said he plans to improve residents’ access to city data, expanding on tools designed to offer insight into spending trends and various city services. “Boston has been a pioneer and a leader in the analytics space and open data.

Mr. Garces has rolled out similar programs during IT leadership stints in Pittsburgh and South Bend, Ind., where he is currently the city’s executive director of community investment. One ongoing challenge: Reaching underserved populations. Open data could “shine light on problems,” including broadband access gaps, and help inform solutions, he added.

What's the most intensive part of opening a U.S. derivatives exchange? CEO of FTX US derivatives, Zach Dexter, describes the process

Tech’s Buybacks

One thing we learned this week from the flood of earnings: the slump in tech stock prices prompted the big firms with plenty of cash to lean into stock buybacks.

Amazon bought back its first shares for the first time in years, while Twitter massively ramped up its buying.

Here’s what each tech firm repurchased in the quarter and how the buyback spending compared with the first quarter of 2021:

Amazon: $2.66 billion (that’s Amazon’s first stock repurchase in about a decade)

Twitter: $2.1 billion (+$1.9 billion on the year-earlier quarter)

Apple: $22.6 billion (+$4.1 billion)

Microsoft: $8.8 billion (+$1.9 billion)

Meta Platforms: $9.5 billion (+$5.6 billion)

Alphabet: $13.3 billion (+$1.9 billion)

Financial institutions and fintech brands want to demystify the metaconomy

82% of global consumers think that the finance industry will be impacted by the metaverse, according to a Wunderman Thompson Data survey conducted for Wunderman Thompson Intelligence in March 2022.

The New York Stock Exchange is preparing for NFT and cryptocurrency trading with a trademark application, filed in February 2022, for a virtual trading marketplace.

Eric Adams, mayor of New York City, announced when he was elected in November 2021 that he would take his first three paychecks in Bitcoin, following Miami mayor Francis Suarez’s pledge earlier that month to receive his next paycheck in Bitcoin.

And yet, there is a lack of clarity around the metaverse. Finance brands are stepping in to fill the gap in crypto education.

Mastercard expanded its consultancy services to cover cryptocurrency, NFTs and open banking. The new suite of services will help banks and businesses adopt digital assets like cryptocurrency and NFTs, address risk assessment for digital currencies and NFTs, and advise in the development of digital wallets, crypto credit cards, and crypto loyalty programs.

Visa launched a crypto advisory service for financial institutions and merchants. The new service is aimed at financial institutions eager to attract or retain customers with crypto offerings, retailers looking to delve into NFTs, or central banks exploring digital currencies, the company said.

The US Treasury launched a campaign to educate the public about crypto risks.

Apple's next generation A17 chip, code-named Coll, will be manufactured with TSMC's 3nm process and will be in mass production after the 2nd quarter 2023, the report says, in time for the iPhone 15

Apple's latest A16 chips are already in risk production at TSMC and on schedule for the launch of iPhone 14. The A16, code-named Crete, will be made on TSMC's 4-nanometer process.

The A16 will maintain a 6-core design, with 2 performance cores and 4 efficiency cores. Apple has secured 120,000 - 150,000 wafers' capacity at TSMC's Fab 18, which will begin mass production in the 2nd half of the year.